Warhammer: Start with a dog

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There is another incident that proves that this grove is indeed a strange existence.

These four visitors are all powerful and experienced warriors, and they have always known their walking speed.

Nonetheless, they soon discovered that even though their minds remained somewhat clear due to Honso's potion, their bodies would involuntarily begin to circle along a certain trajectory, which greatly increased the distance they needed to walk. , will also cause their shooting horizon to require more additional corrections, instead of formulating the shooting line as their naked eyes should trick the brain into seeing the straight route - so if this is not discovered and they plan to attack the witch's residence in advance, then The shot will definitely miss, this may be a defensive measure on her part.

At the same time, they also discovered that this strange dead forest always showed a gray texture of ordinary dead wood in the middle of their field of vision, but when you turned your eyes to the other side, you would see something that seemed to be full of carvings in your peripheral vision. A crooked stalagmite spelled out.

"It would make sense if the truth were like this." Grendel reluctantly leaned forward and walked along the spiral route with others towards the cave in the center of the stone hill. Now they could see the entrance of the cave. , but according to the route they took, they still had to go around half a circle. "I was shocked at first. I thought she was really powerful enough to create a long-term ancient forest here. But now it seems she is just pretending to be a ghost."

Obviously, if there are visitors who have not discovered the scam of this witchcraft maze or visitors with evil intentions, the former will start to fear the power of the owner of this place, while the latter will give the owner of this place more time to prepare.

"Perhaps the woods represent certain images and rituals in the witch's magic." Vannas said. He also observed the surroundings carefully and warned others, "Don't try hard to see clearly what is in your peripheral vision."

Ettasia tilted her head, indicating that she accepted the warning from the former Raven Guard, who was also the servant of the Dark Prince, but he immediately became bored again, "Grendel. I thought you would use some more insulting words to describe it." What about that war commander you hate, like a stray dog ​​with his tail between his legs? Your speech just now is so elegant that I’m not used to it.”

The Iron Warrior Arms Commander gave him an unceremonious and obscene threatening gesture, "Soltarn repeatedly warned us to use this kind of vocabulary carefully when he led us to worship. I'm worried that I will say it if I get used to it. It’s nonsense, so I won’t say it at all.”

Aitasia's gorgeous face, which was mostly covered by a black leather mask inlaid with silver nails, always smiling and enjoying the fun around her, wrinkled her nose for the first time, revealing a subconscious look of disgust, as if it was Glenn. Del had just told him that he had to wear full power armor and a helmet in a proper manner, and he had to paint himself the same color according to the scriptures.

"'Worship'?! Listen to what you are saying, you sound like one of those disgusting preachers or carrion fanatics! Grendel! I thought you were an Iron Warrior!"

"Of course I am." The Armed Forces Commander was obviously very happy to be able to disgust Etasiya, "And I am made of steel both inside and outside!"

But then he couldn't be happy immediately, because the champion swordsman of the Prince of Darkness seemed to have flashing eyes behind his mask, thinking of other pleasant things, "Is Soltarn your boss? He said You just listen to me? How can you be so obedient inside and outside...?

"Bah!" Grendel showed a sarcastic smile with a distorted face, and at the same time took a big step out - the never-ending quartz wind on this planet immediately slapped his shoulder armor with a dense and detailed sound, and at the same time they Seeing Grendel's shoulder armor exposed outside Honso's medical defense position, the yellow and black striped paint coating was quickly worn away, revealing the silvery metallic essence underneath.

"If you could just curse a stupid dog in your mind because you were not convinced during prayer, a dog is just a dog, and so on, and immediately let me be struck by mysterious lightning so that I couldn't get out of bed for several days, I would be obedient. Don’t think I can’t curse people without using this word, you are full of (di——) stinky (di——).”

Aitasia looked a little more serious and straightened her body, "How can you have such a solid protection and such an efficacious gaze? Which great power do the Iron Warriors worship now?" His probing eyes looked from behind the leather mask. Two other teammates.

Honso shook his head.

"Shh. No more chatting. We have arrived at the door of a wizard's house."

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They walked vigilantly through the strings of small things hanging high and low from the top of the dark rock cave. Ropes of various materials connected them and hung them here.

Bones, crystals, shells from various unknown creatures, amulets from various races in the universe, including exquisite Eldar crafts or advanced technological products, as well as rough carvings from scavenging races or a simple piece of blood-stained paper. , they together form a huge, cascading wind chime-like door curtain. The strong wind passing outside the cave collides with the visitors as they continue to pass through them, emitting tinkling and irregular ancient singing.

"Hmm. Wait."

As they were about to pass the last curtain of talismans, Honso asked the other three companions to stop.

In front of them was an unusually thick darkness. Even the eyes of the Astartes and the auspicious scans could not penetrate it, but the smoke of incense was like the incense wood burned in ancient religious sacrificial rituals. The thick smoke It was slowly floating out from inside.

"The time and space ahead is distorted." He said, "I will go in alone, and you will meet me here."

"Then it would be better for us to go in together," said Grendel, gripping his ax tightly, though he looked very uneasy and reluctant.

"Why, I thought you called me here because you wanted to borrow my swordsmanship. Oh, it's sad, so it turns out you just don't trust me?" Etasiya asked.

"But on the other hand, it shows that your ability is trusted, Aitasia." Honso replied. "Stay here with them and wait for me to come out. If I can't come out, you two will take him back to orbit and let Grendel take you directly to Medlengard."

Vanas nodded, "Just do it based on your judgment and intuition. Don't worry about this."

Honso did not tell his companions the data and things he saw on his medical goggles, which would not help, but it was indeed not suitable for them to go in together.

He subconsciously took a deep breath to calm his mind completely, and then walked into the darkness.

As he continued to walk forward and crossed the "boundary", a familiar feeling of dizziness and incapacity surrounded him: it was very similar to the time when he was blown away by the warp storm of the Great Rift, except that the intensity was much smaller. .

He subconsciously raised his arms and glanced upward. The reflective screen surface could not see what should be behind him: his teammates should be only a few steps away from him now, and the skylight outside should still be able to outline the three of them. A silhouette of a man, but there was nothing behind him, only darkness now surrounding him.

He took a few steps forward, and a slightly surprised voice sounded in the darkness.

"How did it come so fast? Are you an Iron Warrior? Strange... just stand there and don't move."

Hong Suo thought for a moment, then stopped and waited patiently.

The voice fell silent, then rose again.

The war blacksmith stood there, squinting his eyes and looking around, as if an invisible hand began to light up an invisible light. From where he stood, everything in the surrounding world gradually began to turn into a recognizable entity.

Shapes, textures, colors, details, smells…

"Huh?" The voice seemed even more surprised. "Move forward, Honso of the Iron Warriors. Come here."

So the Potion Master took a step forward and continued walking forward. The true appearance of the cave inside the building gradually began to appear to him, as if he were a bright light, giving color, light and shadow to everything in black and white here.

Each giant stone that makes up the interior of this cave is engraved with countless lines of dense scriptures, spreading into the shadows in the distance. The words and the knowledge and memories they carry are endless, and products made of humans can be seen everywhere. It seems that the people with the most resources here are humans.

Books and scrolls made of human skin, chandeliers, cabinets, tables, chairs and other furniture made of bones, brains and blood of corpses put into medicine bottles, lamps made of yellow fat, and a whole set of clothes dripping with blood The viscera was spread out on the human bone table. Hong Suo glanced at it and recognized that it was the remains of a less successful visceral divination.

But all in all, it looked like a "general" wizard's room, nothing more than what a Chaos Astartes Lord would have seen on his daemon planet during his burning, killing, and pillaging expeditions.

——After all, do you think the biggest source of human vellum rolls and human oil candles on Medlengard are the empire’s ready-made transport ships?

He turned his gaze to the other side of the room, and through the purple bonfire burning sickly in the center of the cave, he saw a hunched-over creature covered in a mass of rags whose original color could not be discerned.

"Molyanna?"

The creature made a slightly annoyed gasping sound from the shadows, and stood up tremblingly. The hood covering her messy sparse hair fell down, and the purple firelight illuminated the old woman's face. Only to realize that she might be wearing a rumpled, tattered long dress that was once green.

"Of course it's me. But why are you here?" she scolded, "You don't even smell like a newborn! Why are you here? You brought the wrong person!"

Honso stared at the prophet's face. Fortunately, she couldn't see his expression at the moment, because Prophet Moliana's eyes had already been gouged out. She was pale, old, and pitted like a rough piece of iron that had been beaten repeatedly. There is only a frowning expression on his face now.

"Newborn," Honso repeated.

"Yes, newborn, you should have been guided to me by it, because it inherited the memory of Uriel Ventris."

"Uriel Ventris is an Ultramarine and a follower of the Corpse Emperor. What does he have to do with you? Is it really because you once served the Corpse Emperor?"

The witch coughed dissatisfiedly, and with an unpleasant sound of phlegm, she spat out a large mouthful of thick black phlegm into the fire. The muscles of the Pharmacy Master's eyebrows twitched.

"Uriel Ventris and his companions were once sent to kill me, but he failed, but he remembered the star map here, so you should have been brought here by the newborn."

Her aimless face began to look into the darkness.

"Where is it? I can see its stars. This new star is so bright, more powerful than the last time I divined it. They need it... But where is it? Why doesn't it stand with you? Without your silver hand to heal it, its brain can't handle that kind of knowledge and power, and it will begin to disintegrate itself... You have to find it and then you can go."

Moliana began to slowly turn back to her original position, "Not again until you find the newborn!"

"Well." Honso said slowly, and what he sensed from the prophet's words made him smile. "First of all, can you tell me the information I want to know, and then let's talk about this 'new life' you mentioned. Son'?"

The witch sneered, "Bargaining? Who do you think you are? Even the Great Predator will listen to my divination results in front of me and allocate countless powerful souls according to my instructions, but you are just an insignificant hybrid, in your rags I read a few ancient books in the small castle and thought I was very smart. When I stood in front of the Golden Throne, the cells that made up you were still floating in the sewers of the next nest!"

"Caterina Moliana." Honso read out one of the names displayed on the medical goggles, and then saw with satisfaction that the prophetess stood there frozen as if struck by lightning. "Have I read enough books now, lady?"

"This is impossible!" Her wrinkled lips trembled, revealing half of her rotten teeth. She spat at Hong Suo, grabbed the salt and threw it at him, as if he was an ominous thing, "Damn it Get out of here! Why are you here again?”

"Aha. I'm not a ghost, Moliana." The potion master's patience was not very good in front of this nagging witch. It may also be due to some other reasons. In short, he did not take a big step closer for the time being. It certainly wasn't because he couldn't threaten the older lady.

"I don't believe it," she muttered, and began throwing more shriveled herbs at him, the apothecary's nose picking out expired verbena, sage, nettle, thyme, and wild poppy. Fragrance with St. John's wort and more. "Get out of here you ghost! Put the right person in your place."

"I am alive." He felt that his patience had never been better. "Or you want me to leave. Tell me how to find Muka, the Three-Born One. I know it is imprisoned in a large mobile fortress. Tell me how to track and find it, and I will leave here immediately."

Moliana fell silent, and the prophet's aimless face turned to Honsou, "Don't you know this very well?" The witch showed a vicious but triumphant smile, showing that she had probably guessed a certain intention of the war blacksmith, "Come again. Ask me what to do?”

"If I have more clues, do you think I will come and ask you?"

"Then, like I said, I will tell you the clues you want to know, and you are going to find the newborn, take it with you, and cure it."

"Cure it, and then what?"

"Then things will develop naturally," Moliana showed that victorious smile again, "This new star... will allow those who have been forced to suffer humiliation to regain the victory and glory they deserve."

Hongsuo nodded, "I promise you, then tell me and don't beat around the bush again."

"Then you come closer. A man's words are always untrustworthy. I need blood as a guarantee of my oath."

The potion master and warsmith's face scrunched up in disgust, but luckily the witch couldn't see him, and he reluctantly allowed himself a step closer and leaned down.

When he saw the curled nails on the witch's claw-like fingers and the dirt that had not been cleaned for centuries, he could hardly control his hand that wanted to turn on the disinfecting light.

Moliana's skinny hands touched Honso's face, describing his strong aquiline nose, thin lips, and beautiful and strong jawline.

Just when the war blacksmith couldn't stand it anymore and was about to stand up, she scratched his face.

Scarlet flowed down Honsou's face and the witch's fingers, and the long tongue like a living creature wriggled out of her mouth, greedily tasting the blood on her fingertips.

She moaned intoxicated by the powerful smell full of ambition and destiny.